Hydro-Organico Container Tutorials

Hydro-Organico Container Tutorial

Growing your own in an automated fashion is easy... once you have learned the system. Once informed, the rest is down hill. So "heads up", choose the container you are thinking about and see for yourself how it's structured.

Hydro-Organico Container Generalities

There are a few things in common with all types and sizes of Hydro-Organico Containers. It;s the basics that you should be familiar with right from the start.

Water Reservoir

All containers have a reservoir of water below the organically based substrate used for the substrate (potting soil). The water is wicked up into the soil by being in very close proximity to the reservoir. Through out the growing one needs to keep in mind that the soil must always be humid. If any part of the potting mix soil gets dry, there will be no wicking up of the water. There are a few different ways of conserving the humidity in the soil. Different containers or different plants might be needing one or the other ways. The best and most secure way is by topping the mix off with a thin plastic covering. You can top off the plastic if you don't like it's look with dried macadamia shells. They last almost forever and can be used over and over again. I will be describing other ways for moisture conservation as we go along.

The seedling -cups are very useful. Plant a seed and there will be no more work until they are 5″ tall and ready to plant. Are you ready? Then click on the buttons below to see all the details on ‘How”. Place the cap “inside” the substrate mix holder and nestle her in flat. Start filling here up loosely with pre-moistened mix. The mix should not be dry nor very wet. This will help the water to wick up. This is a self watering, passive-hydro unit. So the wicking is important. The seedling substrate is a fine mix of Biochar rice hulls, fine coco fiber, fine peat moss and lightly composted. Too much nutrients would hurt the delicate germinating seedlings. Fill her up to the top “loosely”. The new roots need a soft airy mix. If you are going to plant a seed right away then lets fill the body 1/3rd full of water before placing in the mix holder. Push the filled mix holder down into the body. Remember, once its in the mix should not be compacted too much. Put on the top. The cup should be filled high enough with mix so that the transparent top needs a bit of a push to level it down to the body. We really do not need air between the mix and the top. That would just be a good place for a potential Arthropod invasion. They love small spaces. If you are going to plant a seed right away then you need to have all the substrate wet. The water at the bottom of the body will only travel up the substrate if it has a water way to travel. This is how a wick works. A dry spot anywhere will stop the water from traveling up to your seedling roots. Your done and ready to place a seed in the hole in the cap. Notice that the water is up to the overflow hole. Use a small stick to open a 2 cm+/- hole for a seed of your choice. Drop in a seed and cover her up with an extra pinch of mix to keep her hydrated The seed will love her new home and come up smiling in your face. This is a hot pepper...

Simple instructions on how to assemble the Downy Decorative Hydro-Vase. Click on the buttons below. The bottom tank is simply another downy detergent container’s bottom. It divides the earth from the sea. Before inserting into the body, snap a white modified yogurt bottle up-the-hole. It’s a tight fit. With that done, you can now insert the internal tank, bottom-up. The hole goes in first toward the body hole. Push the pipe and modified bottle top down threw both of the holes. This is a filler tube for water later. Start filling the vase with per-moistened substrate. Stuff mix down into bottom of the wick, yogurt bottle. Always compact the substrate in well, especially around the edges, to ensure the water wicks properly. Once filled, Place an extra mound on top so its full-full. Press down the earth around the edges so there is room for the rubber seal holding down the plastic mulch. This prevents dehydration of the substrate. Wet the plastic mulch before placing over the substrate. It acts like a glue holding the laminate in place while you are placing the rubber trim. The rubber trim is to hold the plastic antitransperent in place. It has one edge shorter than the other. That goes on the inside. You can place it backwards but the longer edge will go further into the pot. The dirt will get in the way. It’s tricky if you have never done it before. After the rubber band is around the edges, adjust the band and the mulch to look even, tight and well placed. Surprise! Dunk the whole enchilada below water. This is to “prime the pump”… the wick. Once all the bubble are out, signifying the vase is full-full, You can empty a bit of water out. In any case the extra water will drain out by itself from the water level indicator pipe. You can see that drain in a few of the previous images if you look hard. It was pre-installed. Make appropriate holes in the mulch for the plantings. You can use a shovel, a post hole digger but we like to use a small hot rod normally used for soldering. It does an excellent job, leaving no raged edges nor torn plastic. You can “draw” a hole as big as you wish if it is a plug you want to insert. The hot tip cuts the plastic like butter. AND! its a light easier to store away than a post hole digger. We are inserting cutting from a succulent. It should root in a few weeks and fill the vase with leaves & flowers. This particular succulent gets big and showy, so there is no need to place more than 3 stems in the Vase. so you’ve done all the work. Now it’s time to sit back and forget about it until it needs a showy place to...

Equations and Symbols

Get Up-to-Speed on Microorganisms

Soluable Salt Ranges

Keeping up on your soluble salt range is important. Always have an instrument at hand to check your nutrient levels. The below chart is a general guide as to what levels are acceptable or not.

Desireable

Permisable

Dangerous

EC

.75-2 mS

2-3 mS

3 mS & ↑

PPM

500-1300

1300-2000

2000 & ↑

Electrical Conductivity (EC) of a solution is a measure of ionic compounds dissolved in water. Organic Nutrients are ionic compounds. Another name for ionic compounds is salts. Assuming the water had very little EC before you added the liquid fertilizer, measuring the EC will tell us how much fertilizer we have in our liquid. EC is commonly measured in milli-siemens (mS) and/or Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) expressed in Parts Per Million (PPM). Both will give you the same information of how much fertilizer is in your liquid. The EC and PPM are always in relation. So stating the EC and PPM is redundant. The relationship is 1 EC (measured in mS) = 650 PPM.

About BioChar Pyrolysis

Quote from:
Daniel D. Warnock & Johannes Lehmann & Thomas W. Kuyper & Matthias C. Rillig
"Biochar is a term reserved for the plant biomass derived
materials contained within the black carbon
(BC) continuum. This definition includes chars and
charcoal, and excludes fossil fuel products or geogenic
carbon (Lehmann et al. 2006). Materials
forming the BC continuum are produced by partially
combusting (charring) carbonaceous source materials,
e.g. plant tissues (Schmidt and Noack 2000; Preston
and Schmidt 2006; Knicker 2007), and have both
natural as well as anthropogenic sources. Restricting the oxygen supply during combustion can prevent complete combustion (e.g., carbon volatilization and
ash production) of the source materials. When plant
tissues are used as raw materials for biochar production,
heat produced during combustion volatilizes a
significant portion of the hydrogen and oxygen, along
with some of the carbon contained within the plant’s
tissues (Antal and Gronli 2003; Preston and Schmidt
2006).... Depending on the temperatures
reached during combustion and the species identity
of the source material, a biochar’s chemical and
physical properties may vary (Keech et al. 2005;
Gundale and DeLuca 2006). For example, coniferous biochars generated at lower temperatures, e.g. 350°C, can contain larger amounts of available nutrients,
while having a smaller sorptive capacity for cations
than biochars generated at higher temperatures, e.g.
800°C (Gundale and DeLuca 2006). Furthermore,
plant species with many large diameter cells in their
stem tissues can lead to greater quantities of macropores
in biochar particles. Larger numbers of macropores
can for example enhance the ability of biochar
to adsorb larger molecules such as phenolic compounds
(Keech et al. 2005)."
Check out the entire report at:
Mycorrhizal Responses to Biochar in Soil–Concepts and Mechanisms"

Biochar & Fungi Relationship

Cation Exchange Capacity Information Blurb

The total CEC is impacted by these factors:
Amount of active humus such as compost, Amount of passive humus such as Biochar, The pyrolysis method of the Biochar added, Was the Biochar activated and/or inoculated? The type and amount of microorganisms, and The overall pH